the hour. here's matt. >> all right, savannah, to the presidential race and a new poll showing mitt romney now leading president obama. we'll talk about that with senator john mccain in just a couple of minutes, but first nbc's peter alexander is on the campaign trail in newport news, virginia. peter, good morning. >> reporter: matt, good morning to you. as you noted, this race appears to be tightening now with exactly four weeks to go, and on monday mitt romney, trying to present himself as a plausible commander in chief, attacked the president saying that the middle east has become a more dangerous place than when president obama took office. the latest pit stop in president obama's effort to reach his fund-raising goal of $1 billion, san francisco. >> we cannot afford to be complacent, and we cannot afford to be cynical. we've got to look back at the progress we've made, and that should give us confidence, but we have to understand that we've got a lot more to do. >> reporter: in virginia, a reinvigorated mitt romney may as we will have been singing in the rain, a downpour. >> people wo